Would you wear this t-shirt?

I am in the process of changing doctors.  I want to use a local doctor so that I don't have to drive into the city.  I have moved the kids over to this local medical group and my husband.  I was the hold out.  Ok, I must admit that I don't like to go to the doctor.  I avoid it and overall I am blessed with reasonable good health.

As the nurse was asking me all the questions prior to my exam, she commented that I was in pretty good health.  I was beaming inside but I was soon to have my bubble burst.  She had a nurse in training with her that took my blood pressure as she was asking me questions.  The young (and they are all young looking to me) nurse looked concerned and took my blood pressure again.  Then she asked the experienced nurse to take it...yes it was high.  I don't ever remember a time when my bp was not 120/80 and everyone up to this point was fine and dandy with it.  But not in 2012!  The scales have changed and that is now considered high.  In truth, my bp this day was 131/118.  Even I thought it was high but I didn't think it was the norm for me.  But I know I had just returned from Brazil and we had VBS and I was feeling heavier than normal so I thought I just needed to get back in my normal routine to get my bp down.  The doctor disagreed and immediately put me on a low dose of bp.  I came back the next week and sure enough the bp was down to 118/88 but I am not convinced it is the medicine versus getting back to normal at home.  Either way I am going to take the medicine for awhile then ask to be weaned off to see if it climbs again.  I am aghast to think that I need a daily medicine!  Not that I am super woman...I just think that means accepting that I am getting old.  I know...silly of me, isn't it?!

Well this post wasn't supposed to be about my bp...it was about the other procedures I am expected to endure for this change in doctors.   This week I had my first colonoscopy.  You know it wasn't the procedure that was so bad...I hardly remember anything after the anesthesia was administered...it was the prep medicine you drink prior to the procedure that had me wishing I wasn't having a colonoscopy.  I had but an every so tiny taste of what true sick people have to endure to get better.  I have more empathy than ever for those people.  I cannot imagine chemo or radiation or the borage of other medicinal procedures people endure every day to get better.  God bless you all and you know who you are.

Well, my procedure did begin with some grins!  At check in the nurse asked me what size t-shirt I wear.  I instinctively asked why she needed to know that information?  She said, "Because we are going to give you a t-shirt."  I don't know why but I asked what was on it.  My brain must have been working ahead of me.  Because she showed me this t-shirt.

 That is not so bad.  But then she turned it to the back side (pun intended).

  Tell me really?  Would you wear this around town?

<^..^> Lori

2012 IncrediWorld Amazement Park

Our church VBS program this year was from the people at Answers in Genesis.  It was called IncrediWorld Amazement Park.

It was the first time I had used their material for VBS.  It was great stuff!  Lots of details and ideas in their books.  Here are some more of our decorations:

Lots of time put in by lots of people at our church went into the making of this VBS.  I am always amazed at the talent God has given us.

Hannah taught a class with some of her teen friends.
Jim, Johnson, and I were in charge of the games this year.  We are just completing an addition to our church so we had the use of the new gym!  Yeah! It was wonderful!

We decorated the gym with houses to resemble what you would find in an amusement park.  We had concessions, photo hut, souvenir shop, and a ticket booth.

 On the last day of VBS we had a carnival in the gym complete with hotdogs, chips, and cookies.  The kids had a great time this week learning about the incredible world made by the Lord in just 6 days!

<^..^> Lori

My belated June blog post...we spent 15 days in Brazil

It is almost a blur...it was crazy to get ready to leave the country, then it was stressing me to pack, then we were on a plane (actually 4 planes to get there) to Crato, Brazil on a missionary trip 6/4-6/19/12.  It was our first out of the country missionary trip.  Jim and I plus our 2 kids and 5 others from our church went on this trip.

It was different that I expected in some ways.  I didn't expect it to be so physically challenging.  The whole trip was eye opening for us all.  We discovered that we take a huge amount of rights for granted in the USA and that was a good lesson.

God loves people of all colors and shapes and sizes around the world even people that speak other languages than we do.  LOL!  We learned a little Portuguese in our 15 days there.

We helped white-wash this parsonage (inside and out).

White-washing is the most messy project I have ever done.

We laughed in the middle of all that work...a merry heart is good medicine.  I had white-wash on me from head to toe.  It turns out lime is not so good for the skin.  I am still nursing a sore spot on one finger.

We landscaped in front of the chapel with the most crude tools.

To turn this pile of compacted hard red clay that they call dirt

into this

We did street evangelism in Ouricuri Brazil.  Hosted a couples breakfast there.  We gave the men a chocolate heart shaped favor to take home.  We gave the ladies a fabric heart with cinnamon potpourri in the center to take home.  See I did get some crafting done in Brazil.

We spent time in 6 different churches ministering with music, teaching, and testimonies of how Christ changed our lives.

We chased toads out of the house where we were sleeping.  We shared our bedrooms with lizards and various other bugs.  We ate rice and beans and then beans and rice with the Seminary students.  We shared wonderful meals with missionaries our church supports who have dedicated their lives to bringing the Gospel message to the Brazil people.  We drank gallons of warm water.  We travelled over hundreds of speed bumps in the roads.  We avoided hundreds but not all of the pot-holes in the roads.  We saw the sun rise at 6 am and set at 6 pm every day because we were so close to the equator.  We got to see the southern cross constellation in the sky.  We met spider monkeys in the trees.  We ate freshly picked bananas, guava, papaya, and passion fruit.  We ate avocados that were so big they looked comical to us.  We learned to travel in groups for safety at night.  We learned why every home had a wall around it along with other protective measures.  We learned to live without some things we thought we couldn't do without...like TV.

It was good to go there and good to get home.

<^..^> Lori

Mother Daughter Honeybee Tea Party 5/19/12

Well my goal is still to post once per month.  I am just a bit behind.  I am going to try to catch up May, June, and July this week though.
In May our church held a Mother Daughter Honeybee Tea Party.

Here are a few pictures of the event:

We had a craft for the younger girls.  They used yellow ink pads to make a thumb print on the white paper.  Then they added bee parts to turn their thumb print into a bee.  We had pre-made paper frames to slide the white paper in to frame it.  A nice take home favor for the girls.

 Fruit arranged as sunflowers.

 Honeycomb cereal, nuts, pretzels, raisins to make a sweet trail mix.  Cupcakes decorated as bee hives.  And not pictured but we had 2 sunflower cakes that were yummy.  My friend, Sandy, makes them.  She puts a yellow single layer cake in the center.  She frosts it with chocolate frosting.  Then she places unwrapped Twinkies around the cake so they look like flower petals.  She arranges lots of chocolate chips on the frosted cake so they look like the center of the sunflower.  Sandy also puts some chocolate syrup on the Twinkies, not a lot mind you, just a swirl or two.  If I find a picture, I will post it later.  I think I have one from another event at the church.

<^..^> Lori